Future Impact users - how are you getting on?

[MacDaddy]

Hi to the Future Impact pedal users.

It's been a wee while now, so how are you getting on with them? Now that you've recorded and gigged with them, what's your opinion?

Any live latency issues?

Do they record well?

Do they live up to expectations and the price point?

[EBS_freak]

I think you're gonna get a very split opinion on that one!

[MacDaddy]

3 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

I think you're gonna get a very split opinion on that one!

There may be room for debate...

[EBS_freak]

Quite possibly - I think it's one of those pedals that you have to spend a lot of time with and have the right bass. Some people get some very results - I personally find it a bit glitchy for my liking. A dedicated synth wins - but then where's the fun in that?

[Muppet]

Recording with it I find it is fine and for general home playing It's good. I really struggle with it in a live setting though. I can't get the right sound to cut through though this could be more a user error.  Works better with passive than with active. I haven't gone really deep with tweaking through the desktop software. 

From a practicality point of view, there are 99 preset slots but switching between banks is a pain.  

If you want it as a replacement for a Deep Impact then it's spot on.  I'm not good enough to use all the extra stuff that it's capable of, however. 

[tonyf]

I've had one on my board for a good 18 months now.

Don't really feel I've scratched the surface of it but then again, that's probably my fault. Remember spending a couple of hours with it when I first had it, cycled through all the individual patches and found a few that I liked/could use but TBH, most of them I personally wouldn't have a need for in my band.

Feel like it's one of those pedals where you need to put a shift in to knock the presets into shape. As @EBS_freak has said, the tracking takes some getting used to but hey, that's part of the fun. I'd class most of the presets as unusable but the handful I do use are really good. As convincing as a "proper" synth? No, of course not, but for me, having those additional tonal options on the pedal board if I need them is really useful. 

 

[tonyf]

7 minutes ago, Muppet said:

Recording with it I find it is fine and for general home playing It's good. I really struggle with it in a live setting though. I can't get the right sound to cut through though this could be more a user error.  Works better with passive than with active. I haven't gone really deep with tweaking through the desktop software. 

From a practicality point of view, there are 99 preset slots but switching between banks is a pain.  

If you want it as a replacement for a Deep Impact then it's spot on.  I'm not good enough to use all the extra stuff that it's capable of, however. 

This. 

I do find the bank switching a right PITA and also moving backwards between patches. Even now, will occasionally hit the left hand change button and forget to hit the right hand one to activate the patch. 

Do understand what you say about using it live. Do find I have mixed results. With the band, where we use our own PA, I've got my IEMs in and we've spent time getting the levels / EQ right, sounds great. Like last night at a rehearsal in a small room with a crappy bass rig, did struggle to hear the nuances.

[Roland Rock]

I introduced one to my pedal board a year or so ago, and now it's my only pedal! It has displaced individual fuzz, low pass filter, OC2 and tuner among others.

It may not be the most intuitive to change settings on the hoof, but with some pre planning, it's fine. No problems live for me, but i haven't recorded with it yet.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Roland Rock

[Muppet]

7 hours ago, Roland Rock said:

I introduced one to my pedal board a year or so ago, and now it's my only pedal! It has displaced individual fuzz, low pass filter, OC2 and tuner among others.

It may not be the most intuitive to change settings on the hoof, but with some pre planning, it's fine. No problems live for me, but i haven't recorded with it yet.

Are you using the stock presets and tweaking using the pedal parameters or have you gone deeper in to the desktop application to get your sounds?   

[Roland Rock]

7 hours ago, Muppet said:

Are you using the stock presets and tweaking using the pedal parameters or have you gone deeper in to the desktop application to get your sounds?   

I'm not so midi savvy that I can create my own patches in the editor, however I have scoured the large pool of user-created patches over on TalkBass and added the ones I like to my unit via the desktop editor. 

 

[tonyf]

47 minutes ago, Roland Rock said:

I'm not so midi savvy that I can create my own patches in the editor, however I have scoured the large pool of user-created patches over on TalkBass and added the ones I like to my unit via the desktop editor. 

 

Ooooooo. Didn't know there was a pool of user patches on Talk Bass. Would be interesting to take a look and try some out. Have you got a direct link?

[EBS_freak]

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B2_tqOG3lexBb0dMYTluOTczZUE

[Owen]

I love it. It does what I had always hoped I would find in a synth pedal. Some adjustment for some patches, but it is a new instrument so I would expect to adjust, like any pedal really. I have to adjust when using my OC2. I have to adjust using a Boss Slicer. But that is fine.

[Owen]

Anything that lets me do this (even with shocking playing) is fine by me Future Impact.wav

[MacDaddy]

so in terms of playing live and gigging with it, no latency or noticeable glitches?

[Roland Rock]

8 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

so in terms of playing live and gigging with it, no latency or noticeable glitches?

None for me

[Owen]

4 hours ago, Roland Rock said:

None for me

Or me.

[Quatschmacher]

On 27/04/2018 at 11:31, tonyf said:

This. 

I do find the bank switching a right PITA and also moving backwards between patches. Even now, will occasionally hit the left hand change button and forget to hit the right hand one to activate the patch. 

Do understand what you say about using it live. Do find I have mixed results. With the band, where we use our own PA, I've got my IEMs in and we've spent time getting the levels / EQ right, sounds great. Like last night at a rehearsal in a small room with a crappy bass rig, did struggle to hear the nuances.

You can use a dedicated MIDI program change piece of hardware or app to better change between patches. Such as MIDImouse, Soleman or MIDI pad 2. 

[tonyclaret]

Just listened to you tube demos on this and it sounds ace.

I'm thinking it could cover all envelope needs too.

So if you can adjust all the parameters can you literally tweak to have just fuzz?

I assume it has a blend? Can defo hear the bass in some of the demos.

Its a lot of money for minimal use for me, but if it sounds the dogs its always worth the investment (this is what I keep telling myself anyway)

Edited May 4, 2019 by tonyclaret

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, tonyclaret said:

Just listened to you tube demos on this and it sounds ace.

I'm thinking it could cover all envelope needs too.

So if you can adjust all the parameters can you literally tweak to have just fuzz?

I assume it has a blend? Can defo hear the bass in some of the demos.

Its a lot of money for minimal use for me, but if it sounds the dogs its always worth the investment (this is what I keep telling myself anyway)

I'm sure @Quatschmacher will be along soon, who has become our FI 'expert in residence' over the past year  

There's also a bunch of comment about the FI (mostly gushing but a few negatives too) on the Bass Synth and FI patches threads.

[Kiwi]

I havent used mine live as there are no gigging opportunities where I live. However, a Cooper Moment Machine is about to arrive. It's a sequencer pedal that uses pitch shift to arpeggiate.  Hopefully it will push the Future Impact into convincing 70s and 80s electronica and dance riffs...Giorgio Moroder for example.

[Owen]

I have a Boss SL20 Slicer which enables me to have a kind of machine driven sequence vibe running with the FI. I have only made it  happen live once where I slaved it to a sequencer for timing. Sadly my other settings were wrong so we were all washed in a huge wave of pulsing phatness. 

[Quatschmacher]

On 04/05/2019 at 07:55, tonyclaret said:

Just listened to you tube demos on this and it sounds ace.

I'm thinking it could cover all envelope needs too.

So if you can adjust all the parameters can you literally tweak to have just fuzz?

I assume it has a blend? Can defo hear the bass in some of the demos.

Its a lot of money for minimal use for me, but if it sounds the dogs its always worth the investment (this is what I keep telling myself anyway)

Yes, you can use it solely for the distortion section which is pretty tweakable. Yes, you can blend in clean bass, both to parallel and running into the filter section. Yes, you can use it as an envelope filter on the clean bass signal (though I don’t think it’s that great at that). It’s a seriously powerful and flexible machine and will become even more so with the new update. 

[tonyclaret]

3 hours ago, Quatschmacher said:

Yes, you can use it solely for the distortion section which is pretty tweakable. Yes, you can blend in clean bass, both to parallel and running into the filter section. Yes, you can use it as an envelope filter on the clean bass signal (though I don’t think it’s that great at that). It’s a seriously powerful and flexible machine and will become even more so with the new update. 

Cheers for the insight, I was hoping the envelope would be decent. What's in the update?

[Muppet]

I'm having fewer problems than last year but my biggest issue now is having a sound in my head (or from a recording) and having no idea how to use the editor to get the sound right. I'm convinced the pedal can do it, I am the limiting factor.